Wichita eagle., 1887-02-03
A ROMANCE.


"Leisureman, said to my venerable
friend at Toby Quaker's when he gave me
the prescription for making wedlock
happy, why have you never married?
Surely so ardent an advocate Of marriage
must have some potential reason for
bachelorhood.
Eyes,, he replied, and his tone was
very gentle. Il have reason for it,
.'Come, old friend, tell me your story. I"
''Story? There isn't anything dramatic
in it. Still | am willing to tell you why
never married. Perhaps / ought to, in
view of our recent conversation, in which
/ gave you some excellent counsel on the
marriage question"
For ten minutes Leisurernan did not
speak, nor did he give any sign Of what
was passing in his mind was silent too,
for it was obvious that my friend was
moved and l felt sure that in his own
| good tirse he would tell me all he cared
! to have me know.
s'It is impossible" he began when he
awoke from his reyerie, ''to give you or
anybody a clear account of the causes
which combined to make me desolate
| old man without venturing upon senti-
| ments and emotions that are supposed to
belong to romance alone, but which in
truth are the every day possessions Of
mankind Touching heart histories are
ali around US, but we are too busy or too
careless or too selfish TO feel interest in
them save when circumstances bring them
into conspicuous view. Then they are
thought to be extraordinary and the
writers OF romance and of tragedy shrewd-
~ turn them to account.
Il am not a sentimentalst; I never
killed a woman; yet 1 have suffered the
unspeakable pangs of jealousy even to
the limit of Othellos suffering. \ thou
sand deaths and burials were preferable
to the living death of jealous man. 1t
is
Agony unrnixed. incessant gall
Corrodins every thought and blasting all
Loves Paradise.
IF have never spoken of this to you
before it as because | shrank from invad
ing the grave wherein are buried the
sweetest hope and the master grief of life,
for my love and jealousy lie there side
By side
In youth / was fortunate to escape the
common accident Of falling in love, and
when at length love came my way the
little rascal found me man OF solid years
and settled habit. The immediate result
was that he laid vigorous siege and gave
me no respite until | hauled down my
FLAG, marched out OF my intrenchments
and signed articles of unconditional sur
render. For time he proved a magnani-
nous captor. He was tireless in hospital
ity, fertile in devising ways and means to
mitigate the natural humiliation of de-
feat, and the most adept ttatterer that
ever tickled lovers willing ear. ]
blush now, old as | am, at the recollec-
ton of the small labor love had TO per-
suade me Of my irresistible charm. By
and by it became familiar thought with
me that the woman who had singled me
out for affectionate devotion (and whom
had honored by tondescending to accept
ought to have done so long before. She
certainly had known me longer than she
had loved me but / couldn't quite make
that out. According TO loves logic (Which
l discovered later was only sophistry mas
querading as logic she should have adored
ME from the first moment flashed across
her sky-for had not love assured me that
was as beautiful as irresistible?
THAT idea gradually enlarged until it
obscured my view of the woman in the
case. | was more in love with myself
than with her at that stage of my vanitys
growth: but like the noble and loyal
creature that she was she bore rly in |
sufferablc and petty tyranny without a |
protest nor saw, what others must have |
seen and despised, that | had become an |
offensive mass OF self copceit. Still was |
not wholly unworthy Of her devotion. |
True. | had monstrous!y overestimated |
myself but for that shc-the woman | |
loved-was in some degree also charge |
able. She had helped me in the easy /
work of persuading me that I was the |
only man in this world. For she had |
forsaken and almost forgotten every /
friend and half dozen suitors. For the |
privilege of being often near me she put |
away the pretty feminine employments |
that had been the chiefest pleasure Of her |
leisure hours. She artfully learned what |
books had read and by unexampled in
dustry acquainted herself with what was
In the best of them. In the glow OF her
unselfish and nominating passion she
would sometimes declare that she conld /
joyfully go through war and plague and /
fiery trial for me or with me. Whatever
work came from my hands was in her
the ravishment of genius She
believed in me utterly and lost no chance
W tcii iIir 80 IlcE ucdtEicSS iONc w
ways struggling for some new expression.
To her mind l was the universal symbol
Of superiority-the incarnation of all
those endowments and qualities which in
men compel the love and admiration Of
do not imagine that was insensible
70 that worship-for worshipit was and
IAN say so now with none of the vanity
that | have long despised. | owe it TO
myself to say that loved her, but the
trouble lay in the fact that she had
powerful rival. That rival was l. No
will patiently endure petted
rival No love can survive in its first
freshness the continual presence Of an
)ther love OF divine supremacy.
The woman who had given me years
If idolatry grew Querulous. I had not
ret dreamed that | could lose her.
hought only of myself, when | thought
1t all, but went on loving her quite as OF
I'D, for l must repeat that little IS
howed it, she was Indispensable TO my
happiness. i gradual change came on
Ter. | first observed IL in her strong in
,lination to return 10 the society OF those
whom she had forsaken for me, and in
.er reviving interest IN the little pursuits
hat had formerly given her innocent
,leasure. / clustered good deal at first
nd tried 10 play the despot with her IN /
arrest, but she oEly sighed YEARLY az
NJ demonstrations and her Indifference |